Getting MCAT Accommodations

[zachjm2]

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[familyaerospace]

So far I've been denied for the GRE, I am terrified about trying to apply for MCAT. I can finish, but I have to rush.

For someone with the medical problems that I do (including ADHD as well as a few other neurological conditions that all recommend extended time) even a 10% increase would help.

 

[zachjm2]

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[PharmaTope]

Same here. I can rush (which makes me miss questions) or spend the extra time and not get to the last passage. I had an evaluation done for ADHD and I applied for extra time. When I was reading over the requirements, I really thought they were too strict. It said, "there has to be a pattern of scores below the 25th percentile" or something like that. But if we were really struggling that much, we wouldn't be trying to go to medical school in the first place...

The MCAT requires a lot more reading than other tests and under stricter timing conditions. The whole thing is basically a reading comprehension test, which makes it difficult for anyone with ADHD or problems focusing.

agreed but if you read what they want to qualify is very ridiculous. AAMC also is very inefficient with getting back about those things.

 

[reisub]

Based on what I was told by someone who applied for extra time for a learning disability, you have to provide documentation that basically shows you are an unsuitable candidate for becoming a doctor. Be glad that all they send out are denial letters and that they don't outright ban people from applying to medical school.

Say you do get extra time for the MCAT. There is no guarantee you will get extra time in medical school or on the licensing exams. And then what types of accommodations will you expect when you have real live patients sitting in front of you?

 

[EdLongshanks]

Based on what I was told by someone who applied for extra time for a learning disability, you have to provide documentation that basically shows you are an unsuitable candidate for becoming a doctor. Be glad that all they send out are denial letters and that they don't outright ban people from applying to medical school.

Say you do get extra time for the MCAT. There is no guarantee you will get extra time in medical school or on the licensing exams. And then what types of accommodations will you expect when you have real live patients sitting in front of you?

Isn't this a violation of Q's corollary to Godwin's law? The SDN equivalent of making a comparison to Hitler is saying that someone will be a bad doctor.

On the other hand, I agree. I've never figured out the difference between a Learning Disability and a Learning Inability. It just sounds more politically correct. I could see the difference if the Disability is correctable with Ritalin or something to that effect, but if it can't be corrected (claiming brain damage from a early childhood head injury for instance) doesn't that become an inability? And do we want doctors who are unable to learn?

I think that I will apply to be on the Olympic swim team and earn gold medals. I can't swim as fast as Michael Phelps, but that is only because I'm fat, out of shape and don't have the perfect build for a swimmer. They ought to give me three extra minutes per lap.

 

[familyaerospace]

I could see the difference if the Disability is correctable with Ritalin or something to that effect,

Mine would be correctable with Ritalin, but I developed epilepsy a few years ago and now most ADHD meds will give me seizures.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Mine would be correctable with Ritalin, but I developed epilepsy a few years ago and now most ADHD meds will give me seizures.

If you have an epileptic seizure during the test I can see the need for extra time.

If you're simply claiming ADHD, you should probably learn to deal with it BEFORE you're in medical school. There are non-amphetamine like drugs that you can treat ADHD. Speaking from experience, learn to get into a routine and be over maticulous with things and you can learn to cope without drugs.

People actually find my ability to multitask fairly impressive, and I attribute this to the fact that I have ADHD.

 

[MacVA]

Based on what I was told by someone who applied for extra time for a learning disability, you have to provide documentation that basically shows you are an unsuitable candidate for becoming a doctor. Be glad that all they send out are denial letters and that they don't outright ban people from applying to medical school.

Say you do get extra time for the MCAT. There is no guarantee you will get extra time in medical school or on the licensing exams. And then what types of accommodations will you expect when you have real live patients sitting in front of you?

I know a guy who got extra time on the MCAT and ended up getting into medical school. His professors gave him extra time on tests for the first two years as well... it only really became a problem for Step I. The administrators would not give him a time extension; it ended up being a lawsuit...

 

[zachjm2]

Based on what I was told by someone who applied for extra time for a learning disability, you have to provide documentation that basically shows you are an unsuitable candidate for becoming a doctor. Be glad that all they send out are denial letters and that they don't outright ban people from applying to medical school.

Say you do get extra time for the MCAT. There is no guarantee you will get extra time in medical school or on the licensing exams. And then what types of accommodations will you expect when you have real live patients sitting in front of you?

The MCAT is different from testing in college classes and other standardized tests. What other tests force you to read so many passages under such time constraints? Most tests in college have short answers, essays, and individual (unrelated) multiple choice questions and they last an hour or so. The MCAT is a test of your reading speed and your ability to sustain concentration on reading for hours at a time along with everything else, which is the exact reason the test is difficult for anyone with ADHD or a Learning Disability.

The MCAT is also not real life. A lot of the material on the MCAT is irrelevant to what you do as a doctor. You don't need the mechanism for the Wolff-Kishner reaction when you're working in the ER and you don't need to know whether the image created by a converging lens is upright or inverted. In medical school, you learn from areas more specific to medicine - physiology, biochemistry, etc, so performance on the MCAT is not the same as performance on the USMLE.

 

[EdLongshanks]

The MCAT is different from testing in college classes and other standardized tests. What other tests force you to read so many passages under such time constraints? Most tests in college have short answers, essays, and individual (unrelated) multiple choice questions and they last an hour or so. The MCAT is a test of your reading speed and your ability to sustain concentration on reading for hours at a time along with everything else, which is the exact reason the test is difficult for anyone with ADHD or a Learning Disability.

The MCAT is also not real life. A lot of the material on the MCAT is irrelevant to what you do as a doctor. You don't need the mechanism for the Wolff-Kishner reaction when you're working in the ER and you don't need to know whether the image created by a converging lens is upright or inverted. In medical school, you learn from areas more specific to medicine - physiology, biochemistry, etc, so performance on the MCAT is not the same as performance on the USMLE.

Whether you like the MCAT or not, the fact is that everyone has trouble with the time limits. I'll guarantee you that with just an extra 10 to 15 minutes I could have scored significantly higher. I have never been to a doctor to be diagnosed, but everyone who knows me would be surprised if I were not ADHD. But I am not asking to be judged as an ADHD person, I asking to be judged as a med school applicant.

The point is that everyone has challenges to overcome. The MCAT should be level ground. Whether it is a good test to judge by is beside the point. The issue is that we are judged by it, so therefore we ought to be judged evenly. Those people who play the victim game and get an advantage thereby are not admirable. The fact that different conditions were used are reported along with the scores, and I hope that the adcoms take into account that the applicant is a victimology gamer.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Whether you like the MCAT or not, the fact is that everyone has trouble with the time limits. I'll guarantee you that with just an extra 10 to 15 minutes I could have scored significantly higher. I have never been to a doctor to be diagnosed, but everyone who knows me would be surprised if I were not ADHD. But I am not asking to be judged as an ADHD person, I asking to be judged as a med school applicant.

The point is that everyone has challenges to overcome. The MCAT should be level ground. Whether it is a good test to judge by is beside the point. The issue is that we are judged by it, so therefore we ought to be judged evenly. Those people who play the victim game and get an advantage thereby are not admirable. The fact that different conditions were used are reported along with the scores, and I hope that the adcoms take into account that the applicant is a victimology gamer.

I'm glad somebody else said it before I did, I was having a hard time "biting my tongue". I have been to a doctor and diagnosed, and I never once thought to pull the "Learning Disability" card.

I don't wish you ill will zach, but I hope for the sake of the integrity of the MCAT they deny your request.

 

[zachjm2]

Whether you like the MCAT or not, the fact is that everyone has trouble with the time limits. I'll guarantee you that with just an extra 10 to 15 minutes I could have scored significantly higher. I have never been to a doctor to be diagnosed, but everyone who knows me would be surprised if I were not ADHD. But I am not asking to be judged as an ADHD person, I asking to be judged as a med school applicant.

The point is that everyone has challenges to overcome. The MCAT should be level ground. Whether it is a good test to judge by is beside the point. The issue is that we are judged by it, so therefore we ought to be judged evenly. Those people who play the victim game and get an advantage thereby are not admirable. The fact that different conditions were used are reported along with the scores, and I hope that the adcoms take into account that the applicant is a victimology gamer.

I realize that extra time could help anyone their score. The AAMC knows this is a possibility and that's why they flag the scores for adcoms. The MCAT is fast-paced and I'm sure everyone struggles with time to an extent. The point is that from a medical perspective, ADHD can reduce processing speed. It is recognized as a neurological condition over which you have limited control and the AAMC would not offer accommodations in the first place if this were not the case. There is also a difference in severity among people with ADHD. It can affect some people more than others and can range from mild to severe, so this has to be taken into account when asking whether someone needs accommodations.

ADHD or a learning disability can only complicate the issue of time. It's not about playing the victim - it's about recognizing that the MCAT under standard conditions can make the problem of processing speed reflect in your score, rather than your knowledge or ability which are the very things the MCAT aims to test.

 

[Art Vandalais]

It's not about playing the victim - it's about recognizing that the MCAT under standard conditions can make the problem of processing speed reflect in your score, rather than your knowledge or ability which are the very things the MCAT aims to test.

I sympathize with your point of view but I disagree with this statement. The MCAT is not a test of knowledge - your performance is only partially reflected by your mastery of content. One of the biggest parts of the test is how well you can process information under pressure, and the greatest form of applied pressure is the time constraint.

However, I am not against the idea of allowing people extra time if their disabilities meet rigorous guidelines. But it should not be easy, and I applaud the AAMC for being very selective about it. IMO, those scores would be judged much differently. I guess it would depend how much extra time is given, but if I'm the judge I'd give someone who did not have extra time a handicap of at least 6 points vs. someone who had extra time. In other words, I'm not sure if it's in your best interest to pursue a time exemption because a 33 with extra time is less impressive than a 27 with no extra time.

 

[zachjm2]

I sympathize with your point of view but I disagree with this statement. The MCAT is not a test of knowledge - your performance is only partially reflected by your mastery of content. One of the biggest parts of the test is how well you can process information under pressure, and the greatest form of applied pressure is the time constraint.

However, I am not against the idea of allowing people extra time if their disabilities meet rigorous guidelines. But it should not be easy, and I applaud the AAMC for being very selective about it. IMO, those scores would be judged much differently. I guess it would depend how much extra time is given, but if I'm the judge I'd give someone who did not have extra time a handicap of at least 6 points vs. someone who had extra time. In other words, I'm not sure if it's in your best interest to pursue a time exemption because a 33 with extra time is less impressive than a 27 with no extra time.

Time-and-a-half with ADHD is probably the same level of pressure as standard conditions without ADHD. Adcoms probably consider that a higher score with accommodations may be equivalent to a lower score without them. But really, if you score a 20 without accommodations and a 30 with accommodations for ADHD, accommodations could make the difference in whether you get into medical school or not.

 

[Simplify]

It has sort of been said, but the entire point of the MCAT is it test you under pressure. The test is not actually difficult except that you have that nagging timer counting down the entire time. Aside from the general knowledge questions most of the test's answers can be deduced or derived from the information given. The test really determines how fast you can find an answer when you're under the gun.

 

[familyaerospace]

If you have an epileptic seizure during the test I can see the need for extra time.

If you're simply claiming ADHD, you should probably learn to deal with it BEFORE you're in medical school. There are non-amphetamine like drugs that you can treat ADHD. Speaking from experience, learn to get into a routine and be over maticulous with things and you can learn to cope without drugs.

People actually find my ability to multitask fairly impressive, and I attribute this to the fact that I have ADHD.

Actually the non-amphetamines give me WORSE seizures than just taking Ritalin. (Hello Status Epilepticus from Strattera!)

The MCAT does not offer time and a half for epilepsy, they do for ADHD. My attention span was once estimated as being at the 12th percentile although my IQ was at the 99th. As my doctors said, the only reason I did as well as I did in college as I did was because was smart. No one could believe I was a B+ student in undergrad, A- in graduate when they were dealing with me. I wasn't even trying for an ADHD diagnosis, just two doctors looked at me and one of them strong armed me into getting diagnosed. Apparently I nearly maxed out the test!

During the GRE, I had TWO epileptic seizures during the exam because there was a really horribly flashing light in the room which I sat under for about four hours. I was rejected for the GRE accommodation for "natural lighting" which I wanted for the epilepsy.

I spent several years running my own business, so I have mastered organization. And I have my routines (I have to, I am also suspected of having an ASD which epilepsy and ADHD are common comorbidities for). I also multitask like crazy. None of those really help me taking tests.

 

[anonymous1001]

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[anonymous1001]

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[anonymous1001]

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[anonymous1001]

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